I can only imagine what Hillary Clinton’s camp is thinking right now. This is an election that i think she assumed would be an easy win. Afterall… that Trump guy is crazy! Right?

Well.. Maybe Donald Trump IS crazy. Mabye he is a pathological narcissist. Maybe Donald Trump is a sexist and a biggot. But maybe the people of the United States would rather roll the dice with him than end up with someone who already has manipulated this election to be able to make it to the finals.

Had the democratic party actually LISTENED to their people instead of listening to who was giving the biggest payoff, and had Bernie Sanders win the primary like the American people wanted… We would NOT be in this unbelievable situation now.

This election should always have been between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. (Bernie would have swept the floor with Trump I would put money on it.) …But because Mrs. Clinton and her career politician moves, the entire democratic party is going to lose NOT ONLY President but also the Senate and Congress and the Supreme Court! Now i think if the big boys at the top behind Mrs. Clinton’s election would have taken their heads out of their asses and voted with the mindset of the people they are SUPPOSED to represent we would not be facing 4 years of Donald Trump running our country into a capitalist’s dream but have actual intelligence in the lead office with Bernie running the show. But alas… The people had to be the ones to send the message and unfortunately Mrs. Clinton’s camp made sure that Bernie was nowhere around when that time came and the people had to vote Trump cause they did not like the way Clinton corruptly does business.

Let us take this time and this upset in American Politics to really review why we are still using the system that is in place now. We need to remove not only Super Delegates but also the Electoral College. It is antiquated and does not clearly represent the people wishes. This is 2016. Why can the peoples popular vote not count as the votes for the country? I believe this country keeps it the way it is because it is very confusing and technically makes it so the American public does not have a voice. Only electoral college and super delegate’s have the power to be heard. We are told our vote counts but really it doesn’t. And it SHOULD!!!

I am thoroughly disgusted by politics all the way around at this time. The one chance that the big wig’s up there in charge could have showed the people that they were being heard, they go ahead and throw the election just to get their croney to be able to “keep her place as the next president”. Well the people didn’t want Hillary Clinton in office, and they would not listen, so instead the American people had no choice but to vote for the other candidate.

I am so angry with how Americans are STILL getting scammed by their own politicians who are suppose to be representing THEM! We need to repeal Citizens United which was passed in 2010. We need to overturn the Supreme Court’s ruling of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which ruled to allow unlimited political spending by corporations. This ruling said that it would be unconstitutional for limits to be placed on corporations because it would “limit how they could communicate, thus limiting their First Amendment rights”. And until that happens, it is only big money that is going to have much voice in our future elections… and we all know that it isn’t the people who have the power of big money. It is the corporations who have that luxury.

Before i shut up… let me take a minute and say that i think we should really think about what is happening to our country and our political system. I don’t feel like anyone really thinks that good candidates were given as an option after Bernie was bamboozled out. What is the future of America going to do if we can not be heard through our votes? Isnt it time for us as Americans start revamping the failing voting system that is 200+ years old?

Well tonight i think America was heard. Heard loud and clear. We are SICK of career corruption with politicians. We need to clean up house and rebuild it behind glass where the whole system is open for scrutiny. We need Sunshine type ordinances put in place to make the entire game of politics have to face oversight and transparency by the people who pay their salaries. …It seems all we have now is an industry that makes it legal to be a criminal. I know that corruption is going to always go hand in hand with politics but we can keep it to a limit. Make our politicians know we are watching them.

Mr (dare i say President) Trump, PLEASE dont screw us! (ALL of us!!) (if you are indeed the winner which i should state that as of now only 89% has been tabulated but Trump leads with 244 electoral votes to Clinton’s 215).

Now as for Mrs Clinton. My suggestion to you is to make Bill give you a foot rub and pour you a nice hot bubble bath so you can finally relax and get a good night sleep. You can sleep in too… seems tomorrow, you might have the day off … and the day after… and the day after that…. It will give you plenty of time to reflect on where you went wrong.

I mean seriously, how stupid do they think we are? If the greed mongers that control the world did not want to give the bay area an air show this year at fleet week, couldn’t they at least have come up with a believable reason why??

I mean, come on! Who would buy that the US Military is under funded?? NO ONE! Continue reading →

One of my favorite websites is called FoundSF.org. It has such great articles about San Francisco and all of its colorful history. Sometimes when i am bored, i go to it to just read. My ancestors were some of the founders of San Francisco. I did not learn this fact until i was the age of 19, at which point i began studying San Francisco history as well as my own lineage.

When i came across this article this morning, i could not believe how perfect it was… like it was written just for me!

I have always had trouble understanding just how my ancestors lives influenced my own. It is several generations away and clearly lifestyles have changed greatly. But i feel the past. I feel my relatives around me. They push me to become a better person and to continue to be proud of the Koshland name as well as my closely related relatives. Continue reading →

Go ahead and laugh. And then explain just how my door tonight became locked from the inside when i left the room empty and dead bolted when i left…?

I know we have a ghost here. It seems that i often seem to have a ghost that resides in my residences. And my childhood home growing up we even wondered if we had a ghost.

This apt. is by far the most active hauntings than all of the others. In this house, i finally got haunted by having something (my iphone mind you) fly across the room! I luckily had a witness there with me so she can confirm that i am not delusional and vice versa. That time we were the only 2 people in the house.

Usually the ghost likes to play what i like to think of as hide and seek with my stuff. I have found that if i tell it to put it back right now… it gets found in often an absurdly unbelievable spot (like the middle of my bed or right on the middle of the floor or even in my own lap… AFTER i have stood up and sat back down!).

Tonight though, it managed to lock the other lock in my room that can only be locked from the inside. Lucky for me i was able to take a bicycle spoke and wrench it back to where i could open the door. This is the only time i have ever had this happen and it is somewhat disturbing… mostly because my little baby kitty Arthur is in there. but also because… THAT IS MY ROOM!!

I went down and talked to our downstairs neighbor Mary one time and what she told me, scared the pants off of me.

Mary has lived in the building for over 40 years, raising 3 children here after arriving from Nicaragua. Mary is the shit! I really dig Mary. She is a sweet lady. However, i speak no spanish and she speaks some english but is much more comfortable in spanish.

Over a conversation lasting about 45 minutes, i got up the nerve to ask her if there was any paranormal incidents here when her boys were living up here. She told me this…

She said after one of her sons had moved away for college, he had moved back to the house (so he was a grown up by then.). She said he was upstairs taking a nap when he came bounding down the stairs screaming and crying. She made a big issue of this because i get the feeling that she was not used to seeing her son in such a state.

She said “What happened? What is it”??

He went on to tell her that while he was resting, he was levitated. LEVITATED!!
WTF?!?!

Now, i have never experienced being levitated but i know that there is enough unexplained phenomenon here that enough people have seen it or had it happen to themselves that i am finally not looking quite so crazy when i come bounding out of my room mumbling …god damn ghost….

It is a curious thing though. Dont you think?

Have you ever been “haunted” before? Please share your story! It is hard to know how wide spread these things are if no one ever talks about them! Wouldnt that suck for me if i am the only one… I had never thought of it like that…. uh oh! ;)

I know that things are starting to change over there for you in Oakland. Rents are rising and the vacancies are less. There are more people moving to Oakland because the locals are being forced out of places like mostly San Francisco due to the new sweetheart deals our douche-bag mayor arranged to bring in new tech firms and along with them over 50,000 new soul-less, uncultured, ass-brained tech workers.

This topic of gentrification has been one i have been writing about for a while now and is probably the issue that weighs down on me more than any other. It is such a heavy subject that i actually see it changing the way i see society and my general outlook on people in general. It is making me a little bit discriminating towards certain new crowds. And i know that there are probably a few cool ones in all of that gentrification… but i hate you regardless… i know… it is wrong…. Continue reading →

Just to give you some idea of what a hot market that is highly inflated (if you ask me!) for housing sales… Check out these numbers….

Last year, 162 properties sold in the Bay Area for over $5 million.

AND In the 9 counties of the Bay Area, over 11,000 $1 million-plus properties were sold.

Now if you dont call that a sellers market… i dont know what is!

It does not surprise me though. If you want anything more that 2 bedrooms in San Francisco, you are looking at over 1 million dollars.

That is pretty crazy and ridiculous to me if you ask. I remember not very long ago, if you spent a half million dollars on a home, you were living LARGE. …But… that is back when being a millionaire was a big deal. Now i think you need to be a billionaire to really impress anyone these days.

So much for buying a house in my hometown in this lifetime! And… they wonder why people want or have to rent…? HELLO!! Some of us dont make a 7 figure salary… and never will. Thankfully, this is ok with me if this is our reality. As long as i have a roof over my head, running water and insulation, i am all good. That is as long as i am in my home of SF. even if it is too expensive for god! I am just going to enjoy it each day as it comes and hope that there are many before displacement is a reality for me too….

I came across this article today talking about having the city of SF buy a gas station on the south east corner of Divisadero st. and Fell St. This gas station sits directly across the street from a BP and adjacent to a Shell.

Here is the full article for you if you want to check it out. http://district5diary.blogspot.com/2013/03/plan-to-turn-arco-station-into-park.html)

Gee… Isnt it interesting that they are trying to buy the busiest AND CHEAPEST of 3 gas stations on that block and the only one that is not owned by the hugest oil companies on the planet.

If they (SF) are going to buy a gas station, go across the street to the BP on the west side of Divis.

Since that one changed from being a 76 station, it is the most expensive and the least busy of the gas stations on the whole block. Not to mention that the Bi-rite would then have some adjacent land for people to buy a picnic and eat lunch.

Let that end of fell, oak, divis and scott be the gas end. That way you keep it all on one side of the street on a block that has little in beauty going for it since the other 2/3 is a shell and a carwash.

I just do not find it surprising that they want to eliminate the markedly cheapest gas in that whole part of town. Plus… When did we have enough money to buy a gas station (to make a park 2 blocks from GG park and 1 block from Alamo square. Not like they are lacking in parks around those parts!) Fishy!!

Just incase we need a visual to get an idea of what San Francisco real estate market has been doing in the last couple years, here is a lovely chart thanks to Zillow. I know right now, i am just lucky to still be here! It wont be forever unfortunately. At least according to charts like this (and the rest are all the same…:(.

So, the past week or so, the media reported that UCSF is about to cut down approx. 30,000 out of the 45,000 trees that stand in Mount Sutro forest. This is a forest of eucalyptus trees that was planted over 100 years ago by Mr. Sutro of Sutro bath‘s fame. He was the main developer and land owner of these western lands when SF was being built. He even built himself a railroad line all the way out to the beach where his mansion sat on the bluff above the Cliff House (which he built… several times after each one burned down) in order to bring tourists out to enjoy his baths, the cliff house and the ocean. Continue reading →

… I would like to address this to all of you. You know who you are. You are incredibly arrogant to believe that you have a right to the really REALLY unbelievable attitude you seem to feel you deserve towards our city and its residents that already live here… Here is a response to a response from an article that i read in support of these tech assholes who are (to me personally) out of their fucking minds… Here you go.. I think it explains it pretty well to you all.

This is the problem we have with you all and your point of view….

Ps. i am a little bit mad.. If you go and read the threads above mine, you can see where this agression lies…. I do apologize for the tone in this setting for you….

“What the F*** I mean is who the hell do you think you are to think that you have any right to come into a world class town and abolish its history. You godam tech narcissists think that the world owes you a world of gratitude and the ability to take whatever you see that you want. Again, i have to ask you… Who the F*** ARE YOU? … other than some ignorant uneducated in ANY OTHER field than the tech industry egomaniac? Are you serious here? You are going to look back (i would normally expect but with you lot, i am just going to hope.) and feel so ashamed. Ashamed of your shortsightedness, ashamed of your greed, ashamed of your insensitivity and ashamed of your choice to want to destroy history for many generations to come. You at that point SHOULD feel ASHAMED! SHAME ON YOU!! I think it is time for you all to open up some books… real books, Not some C+ manual. Take a look (and then… try to..) read some of them. You will soon learn just how deeply entrenched the REAL (curent or former) SF means to people outside of your little foggy bubble. Right about now, i bet that most of us “old timers” would actually chose to give up “technology” and go back to the dark ages if it were to mean that we could have our people filled with soul and compassion and diversity back as our neighbors. I know i would trade you and all of the tech that you so praise in a HEARTBEAT. I lived once without it and did just fine… i am sure I could survive just fine… Dont so much know how well you all would do though. Cant wait to find out maybe someday. When that happens, i am grabbing my popcorn and chair and catching a front row view of your well deserved melt down!! As well as i am pretty sure quite a few others. You aint makin any friends here with that f***** up attitude of yours and it needs a re-evaluation… FAST!!”

If you want to read the actual article and ALL of the comments (beware they can get a little agressive. Clearly this is a passionate topic for all involved)… you can read it here…

This is a long thread that i had to copy from reddit to be able to share with you, however, it is such entertainment, i was pushed over the edge of my yes decision to post it. If your mind works anything like mine, then this will give you several SEVERAL good hard (possible hours) of laughs!! I hope you enjoy it as much as i did! Oh Atherton…….

(to be able to read this in a more cohesive format, go to reddit’s link here: http://www.reddit.com/r/firstworldproblems/comments/18gsc4/police_blotter_for_atherton_ca_where_the_median/ )

If you happen to live in Atherton Ca. which happens to be the states 4th most expensive zip code (median home price is 4.9 million!), then it is no huge surprise that you have even less than first world problems. You have maybe half world problems. And when there is a problem… Who do you call? The police of course. Boy if i were a Santa Clara county deputy i really would love to be assigned this beat! But only if i still had my patience and a serious sense of humor!

This was just too funny to pass up sharing with you all. I have lived in the Bay area my whole life, growing up deep in the Santa Cruz mountains. My dad’s business was over the hill and so we had friends over there. I have always been familiar with Atherton. I think my parents had friends that lived there (keeping in mind that this was in the 70’s & 80’s when it was really rich but the whole bay was much less populated than it is now).

In fact, life was much less complicated than it is now. And much more connected. Now days, fear is fed to us along with the ideals that beauty rules along with sex (however, it can not be talked about) and consumerism.

I dont think that in the days i was a kid that people living in Atherton were this incapable and terrified of… well… Anything that they might happen to come across. I suppose that is reserved for our curent generations of frightened stiff un-functioned twits living in their walled manses afraid of the world and clearly delusionally entitled.

I would not like to see these people cope in a natural disaster where you are forced to rely on your friends and neighbors. If this was survival of the fittest, these people would NOT survive.

Since i was a little little girl, I have been a San Francisco 49ers fan. I really had no choice. Technically i am a 3rd generation 9er and SF Giants fan because my grandma who lived in San Francisco my whole life, for being a little old lady, was a huge local sports team fan (9ers and Giants only. There is only so much time in a year!). She would complain about how cold and windy Candlestick was which was why she never that i can remember actually went to a physical game (the fact that she had SEVERE arthritis maybe had a little bit to do with it too….) but it seemed for months at a time, we would be forced to sit in front of the TV and watch a lot of green grass move back and forth.

Initially, i LOATHED these LONG & BORING tv broadcasts. We may have only gotten 4 channels (this was before any cable, or even remote controls) but there had to be something better on to watch than this display of testosterone! But *sigh* i was out ranked and out numbered and was forced to sit with the rest of the family for what seemed to be HOURS watching 49er games and Giants games. (i liked the football games better to watch on tv, because the Giants in Candlestick was a pretty slow experience for a child to have to sit through AND the Giants were perpetually losing during this period of time… BUT i am no fair weather fan! I am just an antsy fan).

We had playoff games taped over movies on our VHS’s and my mom even broke the crystal face of her watch one year (i think it was the year that we beat the Bronco’s that year) when she jumped up to cheer with so much gusto that her jade bracelet careened into the poor watch. It was a very enthusiastic event when there was a good game in my house. It holds many memories for me as a child.

I suppose its like having to go to church as a child & that the repetitive drilling at a young age kinda implants a feeling of comfort in you. If you do the same thing when you get older, It is an old friend. Its like a hot toddy on a cold night. You may not even like hot toddys early on, but when it comes back to you at a different time, the familiarity makes it taste damn like home and quite tasty! This is the same thing for me and my childhood sports teams.

Now as an adult, i have been able to make my own decisions about wether or not i actually do like football and baseball. The consensus is for me that YES. I like our 9ers and our Giants A LOT!!

The two things that i like the best about these two teams are

They are classy. They actually behave like role models for our youth. You never hear of poor sportsmanship or lewd behavior and they are always gracious… even when on a losing streak (and in the 70’s the 9ers and the 80’s the Giants really were).

They are also old school SF. Now I know that the Giants came from New York in 1958 but they have been here now longer than they were there (i think!) and the 9ers are true local SF, first playing at Kezar Stadium before moving to the Stick.

Local pride runs (or now days more like ran) thick through me. Maybe it is my family link to the city through my ancestry being a descendent of Levi’s or the fact that my grandma lived here my whole life and my parents met here the first year that Perry’s restaurant opened where my dad worked, (my mom worked at the Cooperage which is now a different name a couple doors down.) in the 1960’s. I have been coming to the city to see my grandma my whole life. I then moved here as soon as i was out of High School. She died a few years later, but i have stayed and made this city my home ever since. I am very attached to this city. What can I say.

This Super bowl is a really important event for the city of San Francisco because this is the last and final year that the 49ers are actually SAN FRANCISCO 49ers. Next year they will have traded up to a more lucrative town and deal. It is an end of an era.

Not only that but it is the first time in history (and possibly only time in history) that brother vs. brother will be competing for the ultimate prize. This is going to be one serious hell of a game here on Sunday. Maybe the biggest deal of any Super Bowl yet to take place.

I hope that the game is an exciting one. I have a feeling it will be (can you imagine how exciting it must be for Jack Harbaugh?! Which son to cheer for? BOTH OF COURSE!

The Ravens will be tough to beat. They won 9 AFC Championship games since 2000 winning the Super Bowl in 2001 against the NY Giants. But we have the golden child Colin Kaepernick and the amazing Frank Gore. We have good defense and quick offense. We will just have to wait and see.

Colin Kaepernick and Jim Harbaugh

amazing Frank Gore

But if we are able to win the Super Bowl, then SF will have taken both the World Series AND the Super Bowl all in the same year, the last year that the 9ers are here. It would be a moment to remember forever.

Regardless it will be a moment to be remembered forever because it is the 9ers last SF game and that is something sad and yet special.

Jim Harbaugh

GO 49ERS!!! Do it for the city who has loved you for a VERY long time!! (and then just leave. just leave us…. Waah!! kidding… kinda.)

The SFBG (San Francisco Bay Guardian) wrote the most dead on point article on SF’s housing crisis and Mayor Ed Lee’s acknowledgement of it (as well as partial cause). It is so well written that i am including it in its entirety. Thank you SFBG!!

Ed Lee’s State of the City: What evictions? What displacement?

Mayor Ed Lee punctuated his State of the City speech with a nice little quip: “Every San Franciscan deserves a clean, safe place to call home.” I agree.

So why, in a speech lasting more than an hour, did the mayor not once mention that thousands of San Franciscans are facing the loss of their homes — and will be forced out of the city — because of the same policies that he’s proudly promoting?

These things are always self-congratualtory and full of the requisite bullshit. But Lee’s description of the State of the City was nothing more than a fantasy to the two-thirds of San Franciscans who live in rental housing, many of whom are living with an unacceptable level of insecurity. Much of the city’s rental stock — and the effectiveness of rent control — is at risk at speculators are buying up properties, tossing the tenants out with the Ellis Act, and converting them to tenancies in common. This is a massive civic crisis, brought on in part by the boom in tech jobs and the consequent boom in high-paid young people who want to live in a city that has virtually no vacant housing.

But you wouldn’t know that to hear the mayor completely ignore the issue.

Oh, Lee gave it a toss-off line; gee, the rent is too high, but we can’t ignore the laws of supply and demand. Gee, we’re going to build 45,000 new housing units, and that will fix everything.

But Lee, of all people, ought to know that housing in San Francisco has never followed the laws of supply and demand. This is a highly irregular market, because demand is essentially unlimited. Housing fills us as fast as you build it. And none of the new housing that’s currently under construction or in the pipeline will be affordable to current SF residents who live in rent-controlled units and are at risk for eviction.

When you’re evicted under the Ellis Act in San Francisco today, to make room for someone with more money, you wind up having to leave the city. That’s the bottom line. And everywhere you turn, tenants are facing that ugly prospect.

The mayor spent much of his time talking about jobs. That’s fine; he’s proud that the unemployment rate in the city has fallen to 6.5 percent, but he insists he won’t rest until everyone has a job. Actually, most economists would say that’s impossible; capitalism, by its nature, exists with a structural unemployment rate that rarely falls below 4 percent. In fact, 4 percent is generally considered “full employment.”

More important, the overall rate is 6.5 percent, but it’s way higher for people without college degrees, for youth, and for African Americans. (It’s above 50 percent for transgender people.) The tech boom isn’t providing jobs for all of the unemployed current San Francisco residents; a lot of the jobs are going to people who don’t live here and are moving here for employment. They are putting pressure on the existing housing stock. That always leads to displacement.

None of this is to say that tech jobs are bad or that we shouldn’t have companies that pay high wages locate in San Francisco. What it means is that the city first has to protect its existing vulnerable populations — and that’s not happening.

I would encourage Mayor Lee to talk to the Housing Rights Committee, or the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, or any of the other tenant lawyers who are fighting desperately every day to state off evictions. He’d get a very different picture of the state of the city.

I of course can not NOT comment on a topic i have such a personal interest and stake in (I have seen this happen twice now in 20 years all being within the last 12.)

Some migration of low-income SF’ers from SF to Oakland ir probably natural, helpful and desirable.

This short sentence really irked me. BADLY. It is this smug attitude that this new migration is brimming with and it really makes me steam. Here is my response…

That is… EXCEPT when it is your turn to be forced out of the place you have contributed to and called your home for 20, 40 or 60 years. Then you will probably leave out that last word and maybe the term “helpful” as well. Then you will know that every word that the author just wrote is DEAD ON TARGET. If you think there is a problem with what the author is saying, i would bet anyone $100 that you have not lived in SF for more than 10 years and more likely only around 1-4 years. YOU are the displacers! Dont you see? Do you feel any empathy to what pain you are causing good people that are losing their livelyhoods because you are here now and are working in a new field that many reg. SF residents are not professionals in. Anyone over 40 was not born and raised with ANY computer until maybe like age 20! How on earth could anyone in the older sector ever compete with the youth generation. Where is any empathy or remorse with the people that are taking over SF? It seems like they like to argue for their new SF but dont acknowledge any part that they may play in the negative aspects. Pass the responsibility to the poor victims that they are creating… that seems to be the general attitude i have observed with this new influx. There is not a lot of respect. And NO acceptance for diversity! That is what this town is made from. It is a really sad day. I thank you author for summing up my daily thoughts perfectly. The ones that dont, will probably never get it….

What do you think the answer to this civic nightmare? Any thoughts? I think you get the gist of mine if you have been reading my blog for any amount of time!… Thanks for reading!

I am sure that you (San Francisco) have heard about the rash of muggings going on in Bernal Heights. We held our first Bernal Safety neighborhood meeting tonight at Bernal Community Center to get together and exchange information and discuss ideas to help us all stay safe. The meeting was filled with a lot of information and ideas/suggestions most of which i am sure will be well outlined on http://www.bernalwood.wordpress.com by morning (if not, i will write a post in the morning with the update, because tonight, i want to give you this inside scoop).

After the meeting, i went home and got a call from a friend. We began talking about what was going on and i gave him the basic low down. This friend of mine did not used to be the way he is today and he tells me matter of fact that i would NOT have liked him at ALL if i would have met him back then. Not many people did.

Back then, my friend was a bad heroin addict and was a legitimate gang member. He had a bad habit and was not unfamiliar with violence and crime. This is some of the things he says he feels about these perps. Mind you, these are just his insights and opinions not the iron truth about the perpetrators. However knowing him, he is probably pretty close to right on target…. Let the information begin….

The first thing that he told me was that they are probably taking the money to flip it to buy drugs to flip that to make bigger money. Most likely there is a drug connection.

He is really insistant on this one… they are most likely NOT affiliated with a gang. In the gangs, blacks and hispanics do not inter-mingle. In fact, there is a lot of bad blood between the two races in the gangs. So he thinks that they are NOT gang affiliated but just 3 guys that most likely are….

Living here and are probably NATIVE San Francisco-ers. They know this city and the neighborhood too well. The nooks and crannies. That tells that they have spent a lot of years tooling around the city streets and feel right at home here on main OR small streets.

They probably live near Bernal… possibly in the lower lying lands. Most likely in a rougher neighborhood where illegal activity and violence are an every day thing for them to see since they were small. This is their world and their lifestyle. Crime is what pays when getting a job out there is virtually impossible (especially if you dropped out of high school or come from an impoverished neighborhood that does not show opportunities to its youth the way wealthy and affluent neighborhoods seem to.. (and even those neighborhoods kids are having a hard time not to mention the adults).

He said that he really doubts that they want to shoot and kill anyone. They dont want to increase the incarceration time involved with a murder if caught. The violence or threat of violence does enough. They still accomplish their goal. If they wanted to kill somebody they would have by now. I questioned this since they most likely are the same ones that shot the guy in the hand at 30th and mission last week and pistol whipped a victim. But he remains very insistant on this not being the case. He says not because they have feelings about taking a life but because the consequences involved if caught. (that makes more sense).

My friend said that his options to come up if he was dope sick and needed drugs was either to steal it or to sell his body. He chose the first but he said

“I did what i needed to do when i was dope sick on heroine. Robbing people was an easy way for me to do that. “

They are probably living in a very poor native neighborhood where crime is an every day happening. It is a way of life. Poverty and drug abuse and violence is a way of life. They are probably living in or near the projects and most likely have an (at least one) abusive parent(s).

There you have it folks. From the mouth of someone who (seriously regrets his actions as a youth) has lived it first hand.

It is also something to think about… People can change. People can make better lives and choices for themselves. People are often just a product of their environment and until we have walked a day in someone else’s shoes, we really could not know what it is like to have to live their life. Anyone can make a change for the better in their lives. I personally know someone who managed the impossible and did so. He corrects me and says he is still IN the process of DOING so.

I say… good for him!

By the way. I am so glad that i still live in a true old school mentality of neighborhoods. It feels like it used to. I love the fact that we are all working together. Strength in numbers and knowledge is power. You are AWESOME BERNAL!!

Ladies (and gentlemen too!), We need to be extra careful when walking in the neighborhood right now. The last two nights there have been 2 incidents where ladies were held up at gunpoint and robbed.

The scary thing about these robberies is that they both happened at around 8:30-8:45pm! This is prime time people. Practically still daylight!

The first incident happened two nights ago (tuesday) at about 8:30pm, a group of four ladies were walking on Cortland Ave. and were held up at gunpoint around in front of Taco Los Altos. They were approached by 3 young adults (2 hispanics and 1 black males) were reported to have gotten out of a car (i am sorry, i do not know the make and model). The ladies were held up and had their money and cel phones and purses taken from them.

Be Safe!

Tonight they struck again. As i approached the grocery store to buy some dinner, i saw 2 police officers talking with a young well dressed girl right outside the store. The girl was well put together but clearly shaken. I inquired inside and was told that she was held at gunpoint as well just one block from the grocery store one block down Andover at Jarboe. To add insult to injury, not only did they take her purse and phone, but also took her GROCERIES!! Can you believe the nerve?!

The Good Life Grocery store on Cortland & Andover St.

A last incident that should be noted. There was another incident this week down at 30th and Mission St. A guy was stopped by 3 young men at around 4am and was held up at gunpoint. The guy refused to give up his phone and wallet and in the process was shot by the assailants in the hand. I do not know if this is the same group of kids that preyed on the ladies the last couple days but it sounds pretty similar. I wouldnt be surprised if it were the same people doing the strong arming. They are all currently still at large.

An unnamed worker at The Good Life also told me that another thing that he thought these guys seem to be preying on are possibly intoxicated ladies. I am not sure why he believed this and didnt press him to explain why. I wish i had though to ask about the vehicle involved but i will look into it and get back to you all with updated information.

Dont be a hero! Be safe!!

Keep your eyes peeled ladies. If you get stopped by a robber with a weapon, GIVE THEM YOUR ITEMS THEY ARE REQUESTING! Your stuff can be replaced. Your life can not! Walk in well lit places and if at all possible, take one of the one way streets going the opposite way so you can see anyone who is coming toward you. Put a lock on your phone. Download a phone tracking/retrieving app (i have findmyiphone and its free!) maybe cary pepper spray and keep your eyes open.

These kids are going to be caught. Possibly soon. They are possibly minors and possibly do not have a record so it may take a little longer than one would expect for an adult but these kids are so bold and brazen and prolific that it is just a matter of time before they are caught. Just keep your eyes and ears open and you are aware of your surroundings. AND BE SAFE!

As it turns out, while witnessing the aftermath of victem number 1 last night, those brazen bastards actually strong arm robbed TWO more times just less than THREE blocks from where the fucking COPS WERE!! Not only that but after visiting the comments in Bernalwood (http://bernalwood.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/wave-of-muggings-continues-near-cortland-avenue/) It looks like these have been possibly been going on since November and also over in Potrero and Glen Park neighborhoods which makes sense since they are two of our neighboring neighborhoods. Bottom line folks… If you are just going to the store, only carry what you absolutely need. Leave the iphone and the whole wallet at home if you are smart. That way at least they wont get our whole lives in one fell swoop. Be safe Bernal! AND KEEP YOUR EYES & EARS OPEN AND OBSERVING YOUR BLOCK!!

For someone who has a whole lot of great friends and a wonderful family and is very social, I just cant seem to understand why i end up spending so much of my time alone. I am by myself a LOT of the time. It is not per say by choice, but it just happens to end up that way. It always has.

Now compared to some people, i am constantly surrounded by people. These make up my roommates, my neighbors and friends etc. But i find that they rarely come here to see me. They enjoy seeing me when they are here and they make an effort of coming all the way to my house, but once they are here, they always end up spending their time with the others here in the house. It is everyone else that goes out on excursions. It is me that goes walking alone.

It has kinda always been this way. I have been a very social person since i was a toddler. I crave human interaction and find it fascinating to watch people and their interactions with life.

So, let me recap for myself. I am a social person, i have a lot of people that care about me

When i finally made it here to Las Vegas to see my dad for christmas, after a long mean winter storm hitting just before me having to fly, thus delays of course… My dad said to me… “So we are still here. I guess those Mayans were wrong!”.

My immediate reply was… “No. I think that they may have been right. But i think it is a different kind of end of the world than those have been projecting. I think it is now an era where we have almost 2+ full generations that have lived exclusively with only technology. They do not know what the world was like before cordless things and multimedia. They did not see how a community works together to trade information and form friendships as well as a form of community that no longer can exist when nobody is forced to talk to anyone to receive any piece of information when it can simply be googled. ”

I said… that i thought that this is the era where we become closer to being enslaved (again.). We are having our freedoms taken.. no… GIVEN away to a greed machine that has only one goal…. And you and i having any quality of life does not go well with squeezing out the bottom line drop by drop.

We have been hoodwinked… programed… set up…. We are prime for it. Our little mega processors in our skulls are definitely programable. That is after all what helps to make us so adaptable. Yes. We may be crafty enough to have our species survive for a while, but just surviving and living a forced existence through forced behavior, labor and life, (just think Metropolis by Fritz Lang or Orwell’s 1984. There are people working on that dream like scenario for us right now!).

I think that for me as well as for society, this has been the golden years. The dream like ferrie tale has been now. And i fear is soon to be a memory.

So, if our freedoms and our ability to provide a quality of life for ourselves i

I was having a conversation tonight with a couple of friends about gifts and gift cards as well as exchanges and returns. After about 5 minutes of discussing the gift card industry and things associated with it (Specifically a gift card i received for christmas early this year. This was a gift card that came with a gift receipt.) We started to realize that there was Zero, 0, Zilch. Non, Nada reason for one to be included with the card.

Then we started to realize that with the implementation of Gift Receipts, even if paid for with cash, one can ever only get store credit or an exchange. With the gift receipt we can never prove that cash was spent on the item because they so graciously leave off form of payment so they can force you to contain the money within their company or store.

Once a gift card is purchased, the money has to go to the store. You can not change your mind and get any kind of refund anymore. People used to pay with checks and if you wanted to return something, and you paid by check, they would return to you cash. Since checks are practically antiquated, the only way to get your money back is to have the original receipt and within that first 7 days, you can free your money in what ever form that you chose to pay with.

Then we started to think about how many BILLION$ and BILLION$ of dollar$ that are floating out there in our wallets, our pockets, the dumpster, the sidewalk, the cushions of the couch etc. with a small remainder of credit on that very gift card that will NEVER be used. Just think about the amount of money that is generated on that odd remainder! That is technically our money still. But it is already with the company so they really are making a double double double profit. Profit from the initial gift card purchase and then the mark ups when spent on the items and then the unspent remainder. All benefiting the company and the company alone.

I remember years back when we didnt like something that we got, we could go back with the tags in place within the seven days and we could get some money. Nordstrom did this for MANY MANY years to many returners (and scammers) appreciation.

Now i think about how much money is going one way never to be able to come back if it is something we dont want these days.

Now I can definitely see the benefit of these gift card trading (buy and sell) sites as well as places like ebay and amazon to be able to resell your brand new perfectly unused unwanted item to retrieve some cash said item.

All in all, they are fleecing us dry by the looks of it in a lot of ways, that are less obvious than higher interest rates and inflation. There are the fees and the 1 way money flow… out of our pockets & into theirs. It is pretty scandalous and we dont even see it or realize it happening or at least the bigger impact of what these policies truly mean for them stealing our money.

So on this year of gift giving… Do your loved ones a favor… Just give them CASH for godsake! It is a different time than it used to be. It is no longer seen as lazy or tacky to give cash. It is only what we work our whole lives for! Cash=freedom so you are actually giving them the feeling of freedom when cash is given!

People are not judged by how much they spend, but on what they spend. Give your loved one the right to chose where that hard earned money should be spent. That way, A. the change stays with them and B. they will have a receipt showing that they paid cash incase they change their mind when they get home. The bottom line is you are at least giving the windfall to the one you are giving to and not some financial corporation for them to take over the free world with!

I dont know what it is about the guys here that are reading the community postings on Craigslist in Las Vegas NV. Either i am extremely unlucky or L.V. has a serious problem with how the guys here think, & how they should treat a woman. They have absolutely NO shame about inappropriate behavior towards unknown females. Let me tell you!!

I am out in Las Vegas not for a pleasure fest or to gamble and party, but because my father is dying here. He had a fall last week and we thought we were about to lose him. I was asked to come out ASAP so i bought a ticket to arrive within 24 hours of the call. Because the flight was so last minute, it wasn’t cheap! $234 + tax and fees to be exact. It cost my dad (who was kind enough to pay for it!) paid a little over $250 one way.

That seems like a lot of money to me and since he is paying out of pocket for his meds right now, i did not want it to total $500 to get me here and back to San Francisco, SO, since i have always had a good experience with rideshare, it was 1/5 the cost and i never ride in cars anymore… AND i also had the time… i decided i would post a basic ad on Craigslist with my phone # & a photo. The photo didnt last longer than it took my first harassing caller… a Mr. Hassan Abrahim (at telephone # 618 410-1446. & who was too stupid to block his # before he decided to send me lewd and agressive text messages! Stupid DoucheBag!!) to call (within the first 2 hrs of the poist being up… & at like 6pm!) Anyway, today i decided that i would do a reverse phone search to see if i could find out who was agressively sexually harassing me via text the day before. I cant wait for you to see what i found! I found his name with a reverse call search. There were 2 comments with one of them saying that he owned property. You can see why i was surprised and a little alarmed when i then searched his name and found this…

and this…

(btw, shortly after that, i pulled the photo off the post!).

But that was only the first! in less than 12 hours three more slimy ass dudes hit me up wanting there to be some “fun” on the ride or they were not interested in just saving some money on gas to take me.

Is every city apart from the coasts this disgusting and crude when it comes to desperate (i just have to say it too… and cheap! They could and should pay a professional for a request like that!!) total scumbags trolling the COMMUNITY pages (yes i said that right. These guys were not even hitting on the strictly platonic posts from girls in the Personals section… No! They were trolling up next to the Pets page and Volunteers postings!! That is some SERIOUS trolling!!

It turns my stomach to see the respect for women slide so far into the gutter that these so called men actually think they have a right to ask and project such an insane notion to a total fucking stranger. Probably too pussy to propose such a lewd thing to a womans face! They are a bunch of pathetic lonely ass twats that should stick to what they know… video games and Klenex and spare the general population the sorry ass behavior that they are representing.

Anyway, i may have found a decent ride home but it is not until Tuesday. At least i have free lodging, food and FULL CABLE TV.. with ALL movie channels!! I can easily kill an additional 24 hours here without ever dropping a dollar on a slot machine! Yea! Plus.. more time with my dad and although i miss my little rescue kitty Arthur, he is being well cared for by a friend who i am having stay in my room while i am away. She is in between apts. so she can stay and take care of the king (Arthur) as long as i need her to. Things could be worse i suppose.

I would be interested to hear if anyone else has been experiencing this sort of thing around the country / world or if it is only indelible for Las Vegas??

Today i wake up the fan of the 2012 World Series Champions in sweet San Francisco. When we won in 2010, the city was electric. We had waited over 50 years to win the championship and it was the first win since their move out of New York. We had waited DECADES for that win and for those of us that have been lifetime Giants fans from the days when their record was not so strong and you had to freeze your behind off while paying $16 for bleacher seats at Candlestick Park to the super plush brand new winning record playing at SBC Park, the win was long overdue so, needless to say, that was very exciting!

However, here we are in 2012. Just 3 seasons apart so the buzz of the 2010 win was still fresh and on (at least my) mind still. Felt like it just happened yesterday. But then i remember that last season, we lost Buster Posey to an injury early on in the season and we had not acquired several of our teams outstanding players yet to bring us to today… The perfect team. The team of winning misfits. I feel a little bit like the Giants represent what San Francisco used to be like more than it seems to be like today with their oddball characters and support through the diversity.

A well deserved moment of victory between Buster Posey and Sergio Romo.

Today, EVEN without Brian Wilson as one of our secret (not so) weapons, our San Francisco Giants 2012 postseason team may be the most epic eclectic group of talent that exists in baseball today. From our MVP and one of the fan proclaimed mascots of our Panda (Pablo Sandoval), to Marco Scutero’s coming on strong when we needed him to and , of course the most epic all around player and maybe the league’s best catcher they’ve ever had Buster Posey, to the super intense Angel Pagan and super fast Gregor Blanco, to our new oddball and inspirational addition to our team Hunter Pence, and our local boy Brandon Crawford, …to our amazing pitching staff. Lincecum, Cain, Bumgarner, Adfelt, Voglesong, the VERY deserving Barry Zito and the most awesome Wilson replacement closer Sergio Romo. (Maybe it was the power of those dimples that made each close like lightning). Regardless it was the perfect storm of come behind kids to world champ sweepers.

It is interesting that the Detroit Lions swept the NY Yankees and then we swept Detroit. We were on a roll that no one could stop. We fixed our glitch of being able to win post season at home and we were able to hold off any chance the Lions had of catching up by playing such tight baseball.

It was such an exciting post season, from the come from behind win with the Reds to the absolute tromping of Detroit, it was definitely the fan’s dream season. It should be an AMAZING team next year with Wilson back on the roster and Milkey out of restriction. I personally can not wait to watch.

Mattresses set on fire on Mission Street

I know this type of win often leads to mass hysteria and sometimes self destruction of their own winning city. I never understood why this extreme happiness ends up in vandalism and destruction of their own city. But, that is of course, what happened last night in the Mission. Mattresses were set on fire (again!), city streets were flooded with people and shut down, and i even heard that they had a bus in SOMA that had a single passenger inside, where people had surrounded it and were on the roof jumping up and down and people around it pushing it from side to side. It must have been utterly terrifying! Why would we do this to another possible Giants fan and at least a SF visitor or resident? We vandalized our small businesses and generally trashed our city. So i guess there are a lot of rebel idiots left in San Francisco unless they (probably) came in as a bridge and tunnelers. That would make more sense for outsiders to get wasted and trash NOT their city. Regardless, i wish the citizens and fans in SF could try and show as much class and grace as our players and manager Bruce Bochy always do. We need to work a little bit harder to show the same level of class as the team that incited that reaction in the future if you ask me.

vandalism on Mission St.

That is what i love and have always loved about our SF teams (both the 9ers and the Giants. (We will see how the 9ers fair after their dodgy steal to Santa Clara and all their new big revenue increases in our boring but rich and jealous neighbors to the south.)

And, i have to give big props to the Detroit Tigers who put on a good series even though they never were able to get a footing. Their GM interviewed after the loss spoke with more generosity, humility and class to the point that i felt that we were playing the right team. Both teams were and are class acts and both deserved to be in the world series. Detroit although did not win, did play a damn good season and will also be a team to watch again next year.

Regardless, SF Giants pride is brimming here in SF. We can’t seem to win a World Series game at home, but we don’t care here in San Francisco! We await the victory parade which will take place on Halloween morning at 11:00 am. It sure makes a last minute Halloween costume of being a giants fan an easy one!😉 (We could just say that we came strait from the parade.) However, i have a feeling that because these two events happen on the same day, we may see a new creative angle on the costumes that will grace our town. (for instance, a friend of mine is planning to be an orange Darth Vader with a SF Giants flag as the cape. Dont steal the idea SF or i will not share these secrets in the future!😉.

San Francisco City Hall lit in orange in honor of becoming the World Series Champions of 2012! 10,000 people descended upon Civic Center plaza to watch and celebrate the SF Giants final game of 2012.

It will be a SUPER holiday on Wednesday October 31, 2012. A holiday that is as perfect of a storm as Hurricane Sandy may turn out to be. Only not in a scary way, but in a joyous and cosmic way, having our Halloween team be honored on Halloween! We were not always the Halloween team because in 1989, we were in the world series in the middle of October instead of the end of October (remember that day with the battle of the bay that the earth shook?) We think that the season had to be extended because teams had been added over the years making the season a little bit longer.

Our San Francisco Giants deserve all of the love and honor they have coming to them on Wednesday. They are a GREAT team! I personally think the best team we EVER have had. In part because we are the team of the misfits that came together to create a force that was good enough to win it all.

CONGRATULATIONS SF GIANTS!! YOU HAVE MADE YOUR CITY OH SO PROUD YET AGAIN! THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS! We cant wait to see what we can do next year, but now, a well deserved rest i have a feeling is needed.

Until next season…. We are current WORLD CHAMPIONS yet AGAIN!! WOO HOO! WAY TO GO GIANTS!

Thank you to Architizer website for allowing me to share their article!

In quite possibly the best illustration of “accidents waiting to happen” ever, German artist Robert Rickhoff has created a new photo series that questions public space in a humorous—and sometimes disturbing—way. See more!

Titled “Out of Place,” Rickhoff’s series underscores the importance of architecture and urban planning by presenting impractical and dangerous situations, such as a playground slide facing a road or a speed bump in a railroad track. Don’t worry: these are not real-life scenes (although that certainly would make the images more compelling). Rickhoff digitally manipulates photos from various urban and suburban locales.

At first glance, many of the photos appear to be rather banal. It’s only upon closer inspection that viewers realize something is amiss. Whether they suggest skateboarding in the street or playing volleyball in the center of the Autobahn, Rickhoff’s images depict how idiotic urban design could actually be. We only hope these scenarios don’t actually exist somewhere on this crazy planet!

I like to remember things as they were when they happened. I find my own personal memory faulty and i do not trust modern day media editing! So… Lets watch once again, right from the footage that aired back then. I remember that day in 1989 when i was waiting for my ride home from swim team practice, less than 10 miles from the epicenter! You could definitely say i was there!

…And a friendly reminder that everywhere SOME natural disaster can hit at any time. Get that emergency kit ready. You need enough food and water (and pet food) for at least 3 days per person!

This is the first victory for the old progressive SF since our awful and horrid mayor ED LEE took (stole) office!

See folks. No matter how much political witch hunting and lies and public pushing of their agenda, the truth still rules the law! I think greedy Ed Lee fucked himself up by lying on the stand when asked if he tried to talk him into stepping down and he said no because he not only asked Ross, but a couple other sups. including Aaron Peskin who said he would not lie and take the stand if called.

This is the beginning of the end for our fucked up mayor Ed Lee. I hope at least. He deserves to be recalled! What a waist of tax payer money!!

…ARE YOU READY? ok.. here goes.. take a seat or hold on to something tight…
This house.. no Mansion.. is selling for a whopping $One Hundred and Fourty-Five Thousand Dollars!!!

You can not even get a Studio in the Tenderloin here in SF for that much!! It makes me light in the head just thinking about it!

……

Gosh Dang… I LOVE this place. Living in San Francisco with the insane prices of, well, EVERYTHING, but especially home prices (even worse, rent prices…), i can not even comprehend a home like this selling for the price listed above. Sheesh, (hopefully no one will do this), but just the architectural salvage would bring in more than they are asking. I wish i could buy this beauty and live in it while i watch the city rebuild around me! Detroit is now the perfect place for a huge artist community to come in and be able to finally create without worrying about how to come up with $2000 a month for a dinky studio apt. With prices like that, how could an artist actually afford to make art unless they have already made it big? I think there are big and awesome things in store for Detroit.

It is so sad to see what has happened to a major metropolitan mecca and almost unbelievable! But i dont think that this city is going to be dead like this forever. For many many americans (and others), this situation, that has happened to it has allowed dreams that were always only a fantasy, to come true. There is actually a place now for those dreams to be lived out. I have so much hope for Detroit, unlike SF. The hope actually makes me happy and excited! Sf is almost too far gone to try and grasp it back down to reality! I wish it werent so far, or i’d take my measly $$ and actually try and become a home owner!
I have faith in you Detroit! And… You will come back!

I think that is enough to make anyone who has to get to any of these things to think twice about getting into that auto and driving. Sheesh. it makes me nervous having to leave the house to go to the store! It is just crazy! And… once again… It is thanks to our dear shitty Mayor Ed Lee making his backroom deals. He clearly didnt have his filofax with him at this planning meeting!

It will be anything but dull that is one thing i think anyone can count on!